Slap Upside The Head

The National Post, Canada’s largest right-leaning national newspaper, has apologised for publishing a transphobic advertisement from the Institute for Canadian Values, headed by anti-gay lobbyist Charles McVety. The ad—which pretends to be written by a doe-eyed, four-year-old girl—is headed by the phrase “Please! Don’t confuse me!”

“I’m a girl,” it reads. “Don’t teach me to question if I’m a boy, transsexual, transgendered, intersexed or two spirited.”

The ad was created as opposition to new anti-bullying measures being implemented in the Ontario school curriculum. The measures were created to foster an atmosphere of tolerance for anyone who doesn’t fit in with a simple gender-binary, heterosexual identity.

Despite McVety’s hysteria, medical and psychological organisations continue to scoff at the notion that there is any danger of children “choosing” to change their sex or sexual orientation as a result of an open, tolerant curriculum.

After legitimate outcry, the National Post issued an apology promising not to run the advertisement again and admitting that the ad breached limits of taste. Calling the ad “manipulative,” the newspaper said it will be donating the revenue from the advertisement to “an organisation that promotes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.”